Pop superstar Madonna generated $7.2 million (£4.6 million) for charity by auctioning off a painting by French cubist artist Fernand Leger on Tuesday (07May13).

The Material Girl's 1921 painting Trois Femmes a la Table Rouge was snapped up by an anonymous buyer after it went under the hammer at Sotheby's auction house in New York.

The singer, who bought the artwork in 1990, is donating the profits to female education projects in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries where girls do not go to school.

In a statement, she said, "I cannot accept a world where women or girls are wounded, shot or killed for either going to school or teaching in girls' schools. We don't have time to be complacent. I want to trade something valuable for something invaluable - educating girls!"

Madonna has previously focused her charity efforts on building schools in Malawi - where her two adopted children were born - through her Raising Malawi organisation.